I get where Mario Cristobal is coming from about college football not being a beauty contest. Sometimes, aesthetics overtake the results and that's not the way it should be. A win is a win is a win. But there are times when it wouldn't hurt to look good and Friday's opener at Stanford is one of those times.
The win is the most important thing. If the Miami Hurricanes win by one point, it's still a win. However, this is the season opener for a team that's expected to win the ACC, return to the playoffs and compete for a national championship, so it would be nice to put on a good showing for the people that expect as much from Miami this season.
Canes HC Mario Cristobal, on Stanford:
— Christy Chirinos (@ChristyChirinos) August 31, 2026
"This game has had our attention since January...When you play a game, you always have an advantage. They've played a game...the personnel screams at you...a very impressive organization."
Those people include Cristobal and the Hurricanes themselves. Miami has built a roster that is ready to win big. They have poured resources in retaining players, acquiring major talent out of the transfer portal like Darian Mensah and Damon Wilson II and bringing in top freshmen that are ready to roll.
"The bottom line is, let's go play football, and we'll find out a lot about ourselves, right? But when you're planning this stuff, I think whether it was at the beginning or whether it was later in the season, you have to approach it in the same manner in terms of when you leave, how you do things, where you practice, what times you practice, reset your clock. But all the focus is on making sure we do everything humanly possible to be 1-0," Cristobal said.
Week 1 is a good time for Miami to earn some style points
As we saw with FSU and, to a lesser extent, USC, even wins can leave a bad taste in your mouth. The Trojans were up 35-3 and then emptied the bench, which allowed San Jose State to get some late touchdowns and make the game look closer than it was. USC should be fine and there's no question that the Trojans' first team is going to be very good.
FSU is a different story. The Seminoles needed a good performance against New Mexico State to build some optimism and, instead, the post-game chatter was less about their 34-17 win and more about the lackluster effort and how many days Mike Norvell has left in Tallahassee.
Miami shouldn't want to put itself in that position. The last thing the Hurricanes want to deal with is the outside noise that would suggest they might not be all they're cracked up to be. Now you're saying the outside noise shouldn't matter, but it does. These are still young men. They read their press clippings now and then.
The Hurricanes should want to come out of the gate with an impressive win, like they have the previous two seasons. Mensah should have the kind of game that leave us believing that he's going to hoist the Heisman and help Miami get over the hump this season. There will be bad games — every team has them — and Cristobal is right in theory to not worry about the beauty content. But if there is a time to want to look goof, it's Friday night.
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